Posted by girlfromals on July 15, 2013
I haven't been here for a while, ironically because I've been too busy traveling for work (lol!), but am getting the itch to write again. I've noticed several improvements to the site which is fantastic. That includes cleaning up duplicate listings for the same attraction (one listed in English and the other listed in the original language).
I am, however, puzzled by the lack of a list of destinations on country pages. That seems to have completely disappeared or perhaps it is in a section I can't find. For example, if I go to the destination page for Denmark, the country I travel to most frequently and know very well, I no longer see or can find a list of towns/cities in that country. The Things To Do page lists attractions which I have no problem with. Attractions will be in various communities in a country and people can find their way to other cities/towns that way. But I am worried that visitors to this site who want information for a trip, as opposed to people writing and submitting journals, will not be able to find information on options outside the capital cities or the most popular tourist destinations. Even guide books have an index to help people find "off the beaten track" destinations.
I am sure people planning a trip to Denmark will know about Copenhagen. But will they know about all the other destinations they can go? Not if they can't find information on them. If they don't know the name of other towns/cities to visit in a country how do they know to input that name into the search bar to find that information? Some might argue that people should find that information out in a different manner, know where they want to go already, depend on the tourist information office, etc. to get that info. But isn't that what a site like IgoUgo is for?
Now as I mentioned before I haven't been here in a while so perhaps I'm not looking in the correct place. Or perhaps the team is working on a spiffy new version of this. If not then I think this really deserves some consideration.
Thanks
Reply by girlfromals on July 18, 2013
I've done a bit more digging around the site. Apparently if you know the name of the destination already such as Aarhus (continuing with my Denmark example above) you can backtrack from a town/city (or even an attraction/hotel/restaurant in a specific town/city) to a province/territory/state, to a country then continent.
Unfortunately you can't go forward from continent, country, province/territory/state and then to a town/city. If we're lucky there might be a province/territory/state but not always.
I repeat my previous comments: having the ability to see a list of towns/cities and provinces/territories/states, when appropriate, would really help out visitors trying to plan a trip. It would be absolutely ridiculous to simply list the USA or Canada and then not anything further and depend on the randomness of the last trip or review submitted to try and find places to research. Again, if you don't know a place exists how can you input that into the search function? Using the Danish example again some of the best Viking sites are not near Copenhagen ... but people can't find the info if they don't know other places exist to explore.
I understand business models, etc. but if you want more people coming to this site then you have to make it more user friendly. If people can get this elsewhere they are going to go elsewhere, online or in print form.
I'm more than happy to help with countries I'm familiar with such as Canada or Denmark if staff needs some help figuring things out.